Slots in which a fisherman wild collects the cash value of every fish on screen during free spins. Five Big Bass games compared, from the original Bonanza to Splash and Amazon Xtreme.
A Fisherman Who Collects Every Fish
The Big Bass games come from Reel Kingdom and are released through Pragmatic Play. They all share one bonus idea. During free spins, fish symbols land carrying cash values, and whenever a fisherman wild lands on the same spin, he collects the value of every fish on the screen at once.
The base game is mostly the road to that round. Three, four or five scatters start 10, 15 or 20 free spins on Big Bass Bonanza. More fishing-themed games from every studio are on our fishing slots page.
Five Big Bass Games and Their Fish Values
Every figure below is from the game’s own Pragmatic Play page. Pragmatic lists how high a single fish can go rather than a total top prize, so that is the column shown.
| Game | What it adds | RTP | Fish values up to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Bass Splash | Up to five random extras before free spins | 96.71% | 5,000x |
| Bigger Bass Bonanza | A bigger 4×5 grid | 96.71% | 4,000x |
| Big Bass Bonanza Megaways | The collect bonus on Megaways reels | 96.70% | 4,000x |
| Big Bass Bonanza | The original | 96.71% | 2,000x |
| Big Bass Amazon Xtreme | A choice of extras before free spins, 10 lines | 96.07% | – |
Pragmatic’s page for Amazon Xtreme describes its features but gives no fish ceiling.
Big Bass Splash
Before the free spins begin, between none and five modifiers are added at random, bringing extra fish, extra wilds or extra spins into the round. Fish can be worth up to 5,000x, the highest of the five. Its follow-up is covered in our Bigger Bass Splash guide.
Bigger Bass Bonanza
The first sequel moves the game onto a 4×5 grid and doubles the original’s fish ceiling to 4,000x. The free spins work in the familiar way, with the fisherman collecting every visible fish.
Big Bass Bonanza Megaways
The base game runs on Megaways reels, so the number of ways to win changes on every spin. Once the free spins start, the familiar collect bonus takes over, with fish worth up to 4,000x and the same retrigger steps. More games on that engine are on our Megaways slots page.
Big Bass Bonanza
The game that started the series is still the plainest version: 10, 15 or 20 free spins from the scatters, fish worth up to 2,000x and the climbing multiplier on retriggers. Our Big Bass Bonanza guide goes through it step by step.
Big Bass Amazon Xtreme
Moving the river to the Amazon, this one plays on 10 lines and lets the player choose among game-changing extras before the free spins begin. Its multiplier grows as more fishermen are collected, and Pragmatic lists the lowest return of the five, 96.07%.
How the Retrigger Steps Work
Each fisherman collected in the bonus fills one slot of a meter above the reels. Every fourth fisherman adds 10 more free spins and raises the multiplier on everything collected afterwards: 2x after the first four, 3x after eight, and 10x after twelve.
Reaching that third step takes twelve fishermen in a single round, so most bonuses finish at 2x or 3x, or before the first step. The rare rounds that climb all the way are where the series’ largest wins come from.
Big Bass or Hold and Win?
Both bonuses are built around cash symbols, but they gather them differently. In Big Bass, a fisherman sweeps up everything on the screen in one go, and the round runs on a fixed number of free spins. In a hold and win game, each cash symbol locks in place, and the respins reset every time a new one lands until the grid is full or the respins run out.
Big Bass Hold & Spinner mixes the two ideas in one game. Games built on the lock-and-respin model are on our hold and win slots page.
The Hourly Gap Between 96.71% and 96.07%
At £1 a spin over 600 spins, the 96.71% games average a cost of about £20 an hour and Amazon Xtreme at 96.07% about £24. With the £5 limit for players aged 25 and over, that is about £99 against £118, and with the £2 limit for 18 to 24-year-olds, about £39 against £47.
Some Big Bass games let players buy straight into the free spins in other countries, but that shortcut is not on offer in Great Britain, where the scatters are the only way in.
